so, i got up yesterday afternoon to roll a joint, with the intent to get to writing the reviews when i came in. but, the machine was stuck at a blue screen when i got back, one that i don't remember seeing before and didn't know how to fix.

as mentioned: i don't want to run generalized scans on my machine, i want to figure out what happened and undo it. so, the internet wanted to tell me to do things like run a sfc scan, which i'd throw the machine through a window before i actually did. i don't want to load the defaults and forget about it. thanks.

as i really hadn't the slightest idea what had happened when i was out, i decided that the only thing i could really do was to reinstall to the drive, then slowly copy over data from the broken partition until i found the culprit, which it turned out was in the catroot folder. 

and, i was able to figure out that there was indeed some kind of update process that happened when i was out smoking.

that took until early this morning, and i've been in a sort of a rage. see, what i'm stuck with now is the task of finding out how to undo this update that i went to such great lengths to stop from happening. why did it happen when i went for a walk?

i spent all night hoping i could salvage the install, but now that i'm sure that the blue screen was caused by something in the catroot folder, that is something update related, i feel like i have no choice but to start over again from where i was at last week, and try and do a little better with it this time.

so, i'm reformatting the drive and copying over the install from early november, again. i'll keep my tabs and a few other things in separate copy processes. then, i'll need to spend another day or two trying to lock the machine down better than i did before...

it seems to either be an error with windows update, or some kind of backdoor that wants me to think that's what it is. the installation files seem to have come in via firefox, and then evaporated. and, the error i'm getting is something along the lines of that the setup files are corrupted.

listen: windows update does not work on this machine. those kinds of errors are the inevitable outcome of trying to update this machine, and that's by design. it's broken on purpose. it's never going to work; stop pretending that it will.

if i can get the copy over by mid-morning, i could conceivably be back online tomorrow or the next day.

and, yes, i'm angry and frustrated but i have to just keep going.

what i will say is this, though.

i need to get the liner notes for the november sequence done, and i might decide that the answer to this problem is to keep the laptop offline until it's done. i need internet access on my main machine. but, if i'm going to be constantly targeted by the cops, or some idiot kids that act like cops, then i'm going to have to find a way to get out of the way.

again: i'm never leaving the internet. but, if i have to find some other way to post for a bit, so be it.